An automatic teller machine allows persons to acquire cash by interacting with the machine, e.g., by inserting a bank card associated with a particular bank account or credit account and entering a personal identification number (PIN). A typical automatic teller machine is a cabinet with a front portion providing a terminal screen, key pad, and various slots for conducting interaction and transactions with a user. The cabinet also includes a hinged door providing access to the interior of the cabinet. The cabinet itself is a high security enclosure with substantial structure and locking mechanisms for the access door. Within the interior compartment, there is housed a variety of components including electronic circuitry, and a stack of drawers or cassettes holding a cash inventory and providing a vault portion of the automatic teller machine.
Early automatic teller machines were typically incorporated into a wall structure, e.g., the exterior wall of a bank, and the public had access only to a front panel of the automatic teller machine. Bank employees could access the back side of the automatic teller machine from inside the bank to perform such tasks as restocking the cash inventory and taking deposits from the vault portion of the automatic teller machine. Automatic teller machines have evolved significantly, however, and are now found in a variety of locations such as at grocery stores, gas stations, shopping malls, small convenience stores, and the like. Furthermore, automatic teller machines are now often stand-alone structures, i.e., not incorporated into a wall structure.
The presence of substantial amounts of unattended cash in such machines, particularly in stand alone machines provides a great temptation to thieves who do not hesitate to rip apart the machines either on location or after they have removed the whole machine to a secure location, in order to access the cash stored within the cassettes.
Modern ATM equipment typically contains sensors that detect whether the equipment is attacked and warn a central location. False alarms occur frequently often due to improper use or activity by bank personnel. Even if the alarm is a proper alarm, this communication is often ineffective because by the time someone reacts to the alarm, the thieves have either torn the machine apart or removed it from location and obtained access to the cash within. Accordingly, unattended, and especially stand-alone automatic teller machines are particularly vulnerable to theft. There is therefore, need for a security system for use in protecting ATMs by discouraging thieves from attacking ATMs, particularly unattended stand alone units. Because there are at present very large numbers of ATMs already in place, there is an even greater need for a system that is inexpensive, reliable, and that can be easily retrofitted into existing equipment, requiring minimal modification of the ATM for installation.